Hospitality
by Cutter
Summary: Mitsuru and Shinobu take a walk just before New Year's.


This is just a short little conversation piece between Mitsuru and Shinobu as they take a winter walk. It was going to be a little different, and then I remembered that Shinobu lived in Nagano (thanks to for letting me check up on that!).  
  
Warnings: None.  
Disclaimers: MAS are not mine. Unfortunately. That deserved privilege belongs to Yukie Nasu.  
Dedications: A New Year's gift for the MASML.  
Notes: I realized after the writing of this piece that those who are unfamiliar with Japanese New Year customs might (?) have a little trouble with it. Went on Google and found a nice little summary here:   
  
To the fic! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Hospitality  
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas was over; they walked the streets of Tokyo and saw no housewives buying last-minute cakes, no children wondering excitedly what their gifts would be--now the children wondered excitedly about how much pocket money they'd get at New Year's.  
  
"Speaking of New Year's," Mitsuru said, turning his head towards his companion. "Wanna come over and spend it at the temple?"  
  
"At your temple?" Shinobu wondered, distinctly _un_excitedly.  
  
"Sure. It's economy of effort: if you're already _at_ a temple, you don't have to make a pilgrimage _to_ a temple."  
  
"That is true."   
  
Mitsuru took a sidelong glance at his roommate. "You know, I think you just don't know how much fun dressing up in ritual garb, caring for a temple through pilgrimage time, and getting gawked at by hoards of insane children can be."  
  
"An attractive offer," replied Shinobu in meditative tones. "But you see, I already have plans. Even the Tezukas have a New Year's tradition, you know."  
  
Mitsuru's eyes were mock-starry and he pantomimed clutching his hands to his heart rapturously. He spun around in an extravagant circle as he spoke. "Ah, how much fun does _that_ sound? A temple pilgrimage with the beautiful Nagisa!"  
  
The road was a crowded one. "Stop making a scene before I make it bigger," Shinobu said, looking straight ahead.  
  
That particular quiet inflection of Tezuka Shinobu's voice might've caused a lesser man to soil his own pants. Mitsuru judged it prudent to let up on his friend for the moment, but his smile remained.  
  
"In any case, Nagisa won't be there."  
  
"No?"  
  
Shinobu's voice might have been a little self-satisfied. Then again, Mitsuru might have been imagining it. "No. During the year's end housecleaning she'll try to instigate some sort of ill-plotted revenge against me, and Father will show up just in time for it to blow up in her face. He'll get mad, she'll cry, and I'll end up going with just him and the miscellaneous relatives."  
  
They walked in silence a little ways.  
  
"Or," Shinobu's voice was light, "he and the miscellaneous relatives will get into a grumbling fit about Nagisa, and then about the world in general, and end up in such a sour temper that I end up going alone as the Tezuka delegate."  
  
"You're a very important person," said Mitsuru.  
  
"Oh, indeed."  
  
Another might have let the matter go at that. (Family obligation is understood and sacred, after all.) Another might have asked Shinobu to come with him anyway, to forsake his crazy relatives and run away and have a New Year with people who were at least kind to him. (A house full of sour emotions on the first day of the year is inauspicious, after all.)  
  
Mitsuru was not "another."  
  
"Well," he said, careful and casual, not looking at anything but the ramen stand they were approaching, "when you get sent as the Tezuka representative--"  
  
"Kitsune ramen, please," said Shinobu to the woman at the counter. But Mitsuru knew he was listening. Mitsuru listened too, waiting.  
  
There was plenty to listen to. The streets of Tokyo are always alive with noise. Voices rang through the chilly air, and the breath of thousands hung in garlands of vapor over their heads. The steam from the ramen spiraled up to join it.  
  
After a long pause, he heard Shinobu relenting.  
  
"'When I get sent as the Tezuka representative--'?"  
  
Mitsuru winked. "You can always make your pilgrimage to Kouryuu Temple."  
  
The air was cold. The ramen was hot.  
  
Mitsuru ordered himself some.  
  
". . .that's a long hike from Nagano."  
  
"You came to visit me this weekend, didn't you? Mom'd let you stay the whole three nights."  
  
"I came to visit Noriko, you megalomaniac."  
  
Mitsuru grinned, unaffected by the insult.  
  
For awhile, the two friends were silent but for the quiet slurping of hot ramen, their contribution to the noise of Tokyo.  
  
There was every indication that it would be a happy New Year. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's a wrap.   
  
Hope everyone has a fantastic New Year. ^_^  
  



End file.
